WATCH: Brantley Gilbert, Hardy, Toby Keith’s ‘Worst Country Song’

Music

Ray Wylie Hubbard has often said of “Up Against the Wall Redneck Mother,” his “politically incorrect” tongue-in-cheek fan-favorite song from 1973, that “it probably never should’ve been written, let alone recorded … but the way I look at it, careers have been built on less.”

Now, nearly five decades later, country music that can poke fun at itself continues to be a hit with fans and artists alike. Brantley Gilbert takes a similarly irreverent approach in his contrary new single, a collaboration with Hardy and Toby Keith called “The Worst Country Song of All Time.”

Originally released in June, the song — which Gilbert and Hardy wrote alongside Hunter Phelps and Will Weatherly — started as a joke between the songwriters, as they took turns tossing out plainly un-country lyrics about minivans, caviar, paved roads and blue John Deere tractors.

“I honestly never thought we’d get this far with this song,” Gilbert admits. “It really started as a goofy idea that we were having fun with, and we’ve been glad to bring a laugh to folks this summer after such a rough year.”

On Monday (Aug. 16), the trio took that “goofy idea” one step further, releasing “The Worst Country Music Video of All Time” to go along with the new track. The clip premiered on Facebook, adding an over-the-top, humor-filled visual element to the song’s tongue-in-cheek message.

The clip opens on Hardy and Gilbert, who wear loud, patterned shirts and dance around to the song in a garage filled with minivans and electric cars. Soon, a group of recognizable politicians — aka, actors wearing oversized masks of the Clintons, Joe Biden, Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin, Barack Obama and more — make an appearance, acting as caricatures of themselves. Hillary Clinton snaps a laptop in half as Biden takes a nap on the sofa next to her, while Bill Clinton performs an epic saxophone solo and Trump strides in, decked out head to toe in clothing patterned after the American flag.

After the second chorus, the music cuts out as Keith storms into the studio, taking one look at Hardy and Gilbert and asking, “What the hell are y’all doing?”

“Writing a song, Mr. Keith,” Hardy replies uncomfortably.

“Lemme fix it for you, alright?” Keith drily counters. The “Should’ve Been a Cowboy” star then disappears into a vocal booth, red Solo cup in hand, as he lays down his verse of the song and the party continues.

“The Worst Country Song of All Time” is just the beginning for Gilbert, who released it as the first taste of his next musical chapter. More new material will follow later in the year, the singer indicates.

“We’ve had a lot of great writes over the last few months. We got outside of our box a little bit,” the singer says. “As artists and writers, we have a group of people that we’re extremely comfortable writing with, that we know we’re going to be productive with and we know what kind of song we’re going write. But we branched out a little bit and wrote with some folks we haven’t written with before, just to see what would happen and what would come out of it …

“I have to say,” he adds, “I’m extremely proud of what we got on the way.”

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